Media report: Greece will end property purchase option for Golden Visas

Acknowledging that letting rich foreigners buy up thousands of units of housing to get a Golden Visa, with a 5-year residency and Greek passport, has created a critical shortage, Greece is looking to end that option.

A change could begin as soon as Jan. 1, 2025, and require visa seekers to put their investments into business startups, which would make it the third European Union country after Portugal and Spain to do so.

The Ministry of Finance has introduced a tax bill including changes to the visa program removing real estate purchases that have seen more than 31,000 wealthy foreigners’ applications approved and brought in more than $4.3 billion.

That’s expected to increase another €3 billion ($3.19 billion) for 2024, said Schengen News although the threshold that had been 250,000 euros ($265,700) had been raised to as high as 800,000 euros ($850,240) in some places.

https://schengen.news/greece-may-abolish-real-estate-investment-option-from-its-golden-visa-program-from-january-2025/#google_vignette

But until then, visa holders scooped up multiple units and many turned them into short-term rentals on platforms such as Airbnb to make a profit while rents and home purchase prices for many Greeks soared out of reach.

In 2023, a total of 8,516 applications were submitted; of them, 1,802 were approved, which shows that the interest in the Golden Visa Program of Greece remains high, the news site said.

The bill sent to Parliament, which is controlled by the government with a majority, allows investors to be eligible for the visa by acquiring up to 33 percent of shares in a business, create at least two jobs and keep a workforce for the permit’s five years.

Dimitris Biniaris, President of the Federation of Real Estate Brokers of Greece said that the visas had distorted the real estate sector while the EU warned the program is open to potential money laundering and criminal activity.